Global investors confident on Turkey’s economy

The Investment Advisory Council (IAC) meeting, aimed at improving Turkey’s image as an investment hub, attracting more foreign investors, and providing an international perspective to ongoing investment related reforms, was held in Istanbul.

The declaration expressed the confidence of foreign companies in Turkey’s economy in the wake of the defeated coup. Emphasizing that the Turkish government has been very helpful to investors via incentives and reforms, companies noted that Turkey has outperformed most of the emerging economies in terms of growth rates. Investors also cited the medium-term program, the 10thdevelopment plan, and the government program as the main pillars Turkey’s transformation into an innovation and productivity-driven economy.

The declaration also had some ideas on seeing opportunities in challenging times and on reducing the gap between the reality and the perception of Turkey. Stressing the importance of a stable macro environment to provide better predictability and to continue structural reform agenda, the declaration also pointed out the need to prioritize strategic sectors such as information and communications technology and to make more efficient use of communication channels with the international business community.

The IAC was founded in 2004 with the participation of senior executives from prominent multinational companies. Attendees at the 9th IAC meeting included top executives of 20 multinational companies such as the World Bank Group, Alstom, Bank of China, Sberbank, Qatar First Bank, BP, Burgan Bank, Microsoft, Renault, United Technologies Corporation, and Vodafone. These companies came from 14 countries, operate in 10 different sectors, account for a total turnover of around USD 700 billion, and employ 1.5 million people.